Baseball sweeps Nicholls in a big way

Amanda Vierk

02/13/2005

On a rain-shortened weekend, the LSU Tiger baseball team opened the regular hosting Nicholls State for what was supposed to be a three-game set.
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The Tigers scored a combined 31 runs against the overmatched Colonels before thunderstorms swept through the Baton Rouge area Sunday postponing the finale to Monday night.

LSU 19,
Nicholls State 2

Spectators at Alex Box Stadium sat
Saturday asking the question, "who are these guys?" Throughout the day newcomers
like J.P. Padron, Jordan Mayer and Michael Hollander showed not only their
talent, but also a surprising maturity for an inexperienced group that helped
the Tigers beat NichollsState 19-2 to take the series.

"You've got to give our hitters a
hand," said LSU starting pitcher Clay Dirks. "They've done it two days in a row.
They didn't lose focus. They did well, especially the new guys that came out
Mayer, JP and Hollander. Everybody's really contributed the last two
days."

Mayer, a red-shirt freshman who
started at the DH position, began his LSU career with a triple to center field.
Two at-bats later, he followed with a homerun over the left field
fence.

"I just hit it where it was
pitched," said the Alexandria native. "It was a curve ball on the
inside corner, I just hit it and it went. I was very excited. It was my first
homerun of the year and to do it here at Alex Box, there is no better feeling in
the world."

Mayer went two-for-three in the
game, while shortstop Hollander recorded three hits at five at-bats.

"Getting that first (hit) is always
the toughest one," Hollander said.

He said that the younger guys on
the team are working well with the upperclassmen.

"Everybody's really close, even the
younger kids on the team kind of jell with everybody else," Hollander said.

J.P. Padron, a freshman from
League City, Texas, came in the game for third basemen
Brian Harris. Padron went two-for-four at the plate and was solid in the field.
Coach Smoke Laval was pleased with the performances of the freshmen, but remains
cautiously optimistic.

"Hollander had a few hits, J.P.
Padron had a few hits and Jordan Mayer had a few hits," Laval said. "That's what
they're supposed to do. Again, they've practiced and worked as hard as
everybody. It's fighting through that pressure barrier that the Harris's and
Patterson had to fight through for two years."

Laval said he was not only pleased with the
Tigers performance at the plate, but with the play in the field as
well.

Dirks threw for six innings for the
Tigers, giving up one run on two hits. He recorded one walk and five strikeouts.
He said it was a little difficult to maintain focus during the 10-minute innings
LSU created with its 20 hits. There were three innings where the Tigers batted
around the entire lineup.

"A couple of times I had to get up
once or twice, but I can never complain about those long innings," Dirks said.
"When you get run support like we got today, 19 runs, you can never complain
about that."

Laval said Dirks could have been "a little more
dominating."

"I just thought he could have
dominated the game a little bit more in the fourth and fifth innings, Laval
said. "He ended up with 5 or 6 strikeouts but 4 of the first 5 outs were
strikeouts than he has one the rest of the time. He can get a little bit better
when we need that strike out. He's got to get in his mind ‘ok it's the SEC
championship game, there's a guy on second base and I have to dominate this left
hand hitter'."

The Tigers came out swinging in the
first inning. After Bruce Sprowl was hit by a pitch, Patterson hit into a
fielder's choice to get on first. Matt Liuzza stepped up with a single to left
center.

Then, with one out and two on base,
Clay Harris landed on second with a hard-hitting double that scored Patterson.
LSU newcomer Brian Harris followed with a double of his own to score Liuzza and
move Clay to third. Nick Stavinoha reached on a fielder's choice that found Clay
Harris out on his way home. However, Will Harris singled and then Mayer tripled
to drive in three more runs. Hollander singled up the middle to score Mayer just
before Bruce Sprowl hit a triple to bring in Hollander and put the Tigers up
7-0.

There was more trouble for
Nicholls' starter Justin Breaux in the second. After Matt Liuzza flew out to
right field, Clay Harris landed on first with a single. Brian Harris and
Stavinoha both walked to load the bases.

Nicholls brought in pitcher Bryan
Myers to try to get the Colonial's out of the bases-loaded jam. However four
balls later, Will Harris took his place on first to score his brother Clay.
Meyer settled down and sent Mayer and Hollander back to the dugout to end the
inning.

Nicholls went three up, three down
for the third inning in a row. In the bottom of the third, Sprowl walked and
Patterson was hit by a pitch to begin the inning. After Liuzza and Clay Harris
both fell victim to pop flies, it looked as though Nicholls might shut out the
Tigers in the third. But, Padron had other plans with a single to score Sprowl
from second. Stavinoha would fly out to right field to end the inning. But, the
Tigers extended their lead to 9-0 in the third.

In the fourth inning, Nicholls got
its first base-runner of the game when Dirks walked Tim Daigle after a full
count. Daigle moved to second on a wild pitch. Anthony Hatch then followed by
floating one just over the head of Clay Harris for Nicholls' first base-hit of
the game. Then, Bubba Bell hit into a fielder's choice that scored Daigle. With
two outs, Jose Higuera hit a double to left field. But, Sprowl and Hollander
teamed to throw down Bell from left field as he was making his way
home, to end the inning. However, the Colonials put a run on the board.

Dirks said he wants to improve on
maintaining his focus throughout the game.

"I lost focus one inning where I
walked a guy and he ended up scoring," he said. "When you walk a guy, lead off
walk, anytime a guy gets on you have to focus more and prevent that guy from
scoring."

Nicholls' Myers did his job to halt
the LSU score-fest, holding the Tigers to no-hits in the fourth.

Nicholls fell back into the trend
of three-up, three-down in the top of the fifth as Dirks struck out Thomas
Bourne to end the inning.

Then, LSU's bats picked back up in
the bottom of the fifth. After Patterson flew out to deep right field to begin
the inning, Liuzza, Clay Harris and Padron all recorded base-hits to load the
bases. Stavinoha hit it deep to left field. Liuzza and Clay Harris scored on the
play. With two outs and two men on base, Mayer hit the homer. Hollander recorded
another hit before Sprowl grounded out to end the inning.

Brandon Nall came in for the Tigers
in the top of the seventh. The side-arm pitcher worked for two innings off the
bench. He gave up one run on one hit. Nall recorded one strikeout and no
walks.

Laval said Nall had a tough time sitting
through those 10 minute innings. He said both Dirks and Nall can maintain their
endurance, but not at this point in the season. He said its tough to sit that
long and go back in to pitch.

After getting on with a base hit,
Bubba Bell scored with two outs on a wild pitch. That would give Nicholls two
runs in the game.

Having 14 runs wasn't good enough
for LSU. In the bottom of the seventh, Brandon Bass pinch hit in place of Will
Harris. Bass singled. Then, Steven Broschofsky, who came in for Jordan Mayer,
doubled. Hollander walked to load the bases for Rhett Buteau. Buteau, who pitch
hit for Sprowl, recorded a two-RBI single that scored Bass and Broschofsky.Patterson walked and Will Davis, who
pinch hit for Liuzza, reached on a fielder's choice scoring Hollander, moving
Buteau to third and Patterson to second.

Then Chris Jackson, the place kicker for the
football team, singled up the middle to score Buteau and Patterson. However,
Patterson's run was unearned so Jackson receives only one RBI on the hit.
Padron and Steward both popped out to end the inning.

- Amanda Vierk

LSU 12, NichollsState 1

Under the leadership of senior Lane Mestepey, the LSU baseball team solidly defeated NichollsState 12-1 in the season opener on Friday.

The veteran left-hander started the
game for the Tigers. Mestepey threw seven innings giving up only two hits and no
earned runs. The Colonels' only score came from an unearned run that resulted
from a lead-off infield error that put the Colonels' Michael Roberts on first. A
passed ball moved Roberts to second and he scored on an RBI groundout by Tim
Daigle.

Mestepey had an outstanding year in
his sophomore outing, but had a difficult year in 2004 after returning from
shoulder surgery. However, the 2001 national freshman of the year said he felt
great after the season opener.

"It feels great to get out there,"
Mestepey said. "There's no pain. I feel like my old self, like sophomore season.
Last year was kind of an up and down year for me. Early on (tonight) I didn't
have control of my fastball. But, I knew if I threw strikes my field would do
the job for me. I kept throwing the ball and I finally got my strike zone back."
Early on in the game I wasn't as sharp. The catcher would call a fast ball and
I'd throw it in."

Coach Smoke Laval said he expects
Mestepey will continue to improve, but was pleased with his performance.

"He's close to where he should be,"
Laval said.
"They really only had like three good cuts. They had a lot of ground balls and a
lot of first batter outs."

The Tigers got on the board in the
third inning. After Derrick Hebert and Rhett Buteau were both hit by a pitch to
get on base, Bruce Sprowl hit a three- run homerun on an 0-2 count. Brian Harris
flew out to end the inning, but the Tigers went into the top of the fourth
leading 3-1.

Sprowl, who went three-for-three in
the game, said he was excited to play in his first game since 2003.

"Getting to watch all last year was
a great experience," Sprowl said. "I learned a lot. It was exciting. I was ready
to play. Around two o'clock I started getting a little anxious and wanted to get
out there."

More big hitters stepped up to the
plate in the fourth for the Tigers. Clay Harris and Will Harris led off the
inning with walks followed by a fielder's choice from Dustin Weaver. Will Harris
was caught in the fielder's choice for the first out of the inning.

Then, the Tigers extended their
lead with a Nick Stavinoha three-run homerun over left field. Just two batters
later, Rhett Buteau hit his first career homerun. The Tigers' second homerun of
the inning put LSU up 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth.

Buteau, a fifth-year senior, came
into the game with only two hits at 17 at bats. He went one-for-three and
recorded a walk in the season-opener.

"We're very excited for Rhett,"
Mestepey said. "He's been here five years like me. He's a great guy to have on
the team and we're very excited for him."

Buteau started at left field in
place of Ryan Patterson. Laval said he mainly wanted to see Buteau's
performance in the field.

"I wanted to see him run some balls
down," Laval
said. "If he hits for us that's a plus because he can run."

Laval said he was pleased but not necessarily
surprised with Buteau's shot out the park.

"I wouldn't put them in if I didn't
think they could do the job," he said.

Mestepey continued to shut down the
Colonels as they went three up, three down in the fifth and sixth
innings.

In the seventh inning, Sprowl
continued on his path to perfection with a double down the right field line.
Brian Harris then recorded an RBI single that scored Sprowl. Then, senior Blake
Gill singled up the middle to move Harris to second.

Gill, who played at the DH
position, usually plays in the infield but is recovering from shoulder surgery.
Laval said they
project Gill will return to the field sometime in March.

With one out in the bottom of the
seventh, Will Harris singled to center field, scoring both Brian Harris and
Gill. Weaver then smashed the ball over the left field wall for a two-run
homerun that put the Tigers up 12-1.

In the top of the eighth inning,
spectators got their first look at LSU freshman right-handed pitcher, Eric English. English, who came in to close the game for Mestepey, held Nicholls to
no hits and two walks in two innings of work.

The freshman from Weston, Florida posted a 2.97 ERA in 21.2 innings
during fall intrasquad practice.

"The thing about English is he
really competes, even in intrasquad games," Laval said. "The guys get on him a little bit
like ‘hey it's not the seventh game of the world series'."

Laval said he's seen better pitching from his
squad this year.

"Good weather in the fall allowed
us to get a lot of pitching in, a lot of intrasquads," he said. "That's why I
think our pitching will be a little bit better this year."

Laval said he was impressed with the newcomers
but he was also pleased with the play of the veterans as well.

"The poise of the older guys kind
of excited me tonight," Laval said. "You get behind and you boot a
ball, but it seemed like the older guys didn't show any panic whatsoever. That
is a good sign. I credit the veterans."